This was, on the one hand, a terrible day for the European Union. It was decided on Wednesday that in the future it would lock refugee families with children in camps under prison-like conditions. It curtails the rights of desperate people who make their way to Europe to flee political persecution, war and hunger or simply in search of a better life. With the asylum law reform passed by the European Parliament, the EU is building a wall of heartlessness around the continent, brick by brick.
This was, on the other hand, a great day for the European Union. She has achieved what no one believed she could do after the crisis years of 2015 and 2016: there is now a common European language and a common European set of instruments in migration policy, in the most difficult and emotional policy area of all. The common goal: to reduce the number of refugees arriving in Europe without weakening asylum law. This is a sign of strength to everyone who wants to divide Europe apart – to the right-wing populists at home as well as to the autocrats of this world.
A tribute to the right-wing zeitgeist
Both opinions on the major European asylum law reform are legitimate, the moral as well as the political. To form a final judgment, it helps to imagine that the reform had failed in the European Parliament on Wednesday. The message would have been two months before the European elections: Dear citizens, forget the EU, stick with the populists, because in Brussels there are no answers to the burning questions of migration, which are currently crucial to the election for many people.
The EU is doing what needs to be done in the current situation. It demonstrates its functionality and tries to show: We have a plan. The aim of the camps at the external borders is to prevent refugees who foreseeably have no chance of asylum from entering the EU. States like Italy and Greece, which are taking on even more tasks than before, should be supported by the others according to fixed rules. However, Europe is still a long way from a solidarity-based distribution of refugees across the 27 countries. The reform focuses primarily on defense and deterrence, and is therefore also a tribute to the right-wing zeitgeist. The German government was alone in Europe in promoting more humane solutions.
And so the dilemma of this tightening of asylum laws is exemplified by the German Greens. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressly approved the reform, but German MEPs tried to prevent it by all possible means. This division on an issue that is so central to Europe will continue to harm the Greens for a long time to come.
In any case, it is worth working on shaping the reform now. It will take two years to build the camps, bring the complicated legal texts to life and conclude repatriation agreements with countries of origin. Until then, many other options will be discussed in Europe to keep refugees out of Europe as quickly as possible. And experience teaches: There will be no more humane models than the one decided on Wednesday.